


Coming to Conclusions

by phonecallfromgod



Category: American Vandal (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, M/M, Miscommunication, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 16:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14719607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phonecallfromgod/pseuds/phonecallfromgod
Summary: Does Sam have a crush on Gabi? She doesn't know. Does she wanna find out? Absolutely not.or Shit Goes Down At Camp Miniwaka





	Coming to Conclusions

Gabi’s not blind, and she’s definitely not stupid. She hadn’t needed Peter’s whole little video essay about it to know that Sam has a crush on her. And honestly, as much as it’s sometimes a little awkward, it’s never really been much of a problem in their relationship that Sam liked her. 

Sure it meant that he made the occasional comments about the guys she dated, and to be fair Brandon had deserved all of those and more. And, yeah, stuff had gotten super awkward at family events after her older brother Daniel and Sam’s older sister Lindsay had started dating, the typical ‘so when are you and Sam going to make it official then?’ from her aunts. But overall Gabi loved Sam (platonically!) way too much for any of that to ever be much of a big deal. 

Besides, she was convinced Sam had realized a long time ago that the way she saw him was as a friend and nothing more, and that he’d decided to just ride out his own feelings until they fizzled away into unreciprocated nothingness.

She hadn’t expected him to come up to her three days before changeover weekend at Miniwaka right before campfire with the kind of resolute, serious expression on his face he only ever got ten minutes before curtain. 

“Hey,” Gabi says cautiously as Sam sidesteps her gaggle of intermediate girl campers who are practically tripping over themselves to get the best spot at campfire. 

“Hey,” Sam says. “You got a sec?” 

“Yeah,” she says, waving for the girls to go ahead as Sam rubs at his arms. “What’s up?” 

“I need to talk to you about something, will you have some time after lights out?” Sam says and Gabi’s heart stutters in her chest before dropping into her stomach. 

“You need to talk to me?” She repeats slowly, mind whirling as she tries to come up with another possible explanation. “Can’t you tell me now?” 

“It’s uh,” Sam rubs the back of his neck nervously and eyes a cabin of junior boys who clambour past them noisily, “It’s kind of….private.” 

“Private,” Gabi says, dread starting to settle in the pit of her stomach. 

“Yeah it’s just, uh, I don't really want there to be other people around. So are you free after lights out?” And god he looks so _nervous_ , if he’s really going to tell her he likes her Gabi thinks she might actually break his heart. 

She swallows hard. “I um, I actually told Emma I would take her rounds shift tonight so I can’t. Sorry,” she adds as an afterthought. 

Sam looks disappointed for a flash of a second and then schools his face into something more neutral and gives her a little smile. “Yeah, no worries. Maybe tomorrow?” 

Absolutely _not_ she thinks. “Yeah sure,” She says, and turns on her heel, walking quickly to try and avoid any sort of follow-up conversation. 

She’s lucky, in a way, that the next day is one of neverending mini-crises from start to finish, so every single time she sees Sam it’s not even a lie when she tells him she can’t talk to him right now. And it’s not like he can really press the issue when she’s accompanied by a crying camper, or a bleeding CIT, or wielding a fire extinguisher and can blow him off with a quick “Not now Sam.”

She’s still recovering from all the running around after lights out, her head cradled in her hands while she chills at one of the tables in the mess hall, one of her friends who works in the kitchen sneaking her an ice cream sundae for her help earlier with the fire. 

“Hell of a day,” Someone says and Gabi pulls her head out of her hands to see Sam looking down at her with a little bemused smile. 

“God,” She groans, rubbing her eyes, “Feels like it’s been three weeks. Also it’s my job as a counsellor to remind you that as an LIT you’re supposed to be in your cabin right now.” 

“Well, I think as the master negotiator behind the Great Shower Amalgamation of ‘16 that maybe I can bend the rule just this once,” Sam says with a smirk and Gabi sighs melodramatically. 

“I guess I _do_ owe you for taking over that one when I had to go deal with the fire,” she says, and shoves her half melted sundae towards him which he happily finishes for her. 

“So—” He starts, licking the back of his spoon. 

“—Sorry I know you wanted to talk I just, I can’t, not tonight. I feel like my brain is going to explode if I have to deal with literally anything else.” _And I’d really rather not have to break your heart_. 

Sam shakes his head. “Yeah, of course, I was just gonna ask if you wanted me to run your morning section tomorrow so you could have a break.” 

Gabi mulls this over for a minute, because on the one hand if this is some sort of crush motivated offer she doesn’t want to take him up on it and then turn around and reject him. But on the other hand, the offer of being able to have a whole hour and a half to herself is too tempting to turn down. 

“You got a deal,” Gabi says, and Sam grins at her, tapping the spoon on his top lip. 

“Would you like me to accompany you to your cabin, m’lady?” Sam asks after they’ve cleared the dishes back to the kitchen and pushed through the screen door of the mess hall out into the humid summer air. 

“Nah I’m good, you should probably get back to your cabin quick anyways, kiddo,” she says, and Sam makes a face. 

“What?” 

“I just, _kiddo_. I’m only two years younger than you,” he protests. “I mean, you don’t really think I’m a kid anymore do you?” 

Gabi bites her lip, not sure how exactly she’s meant to answer this since, yeah she does kind of see Sam as like a kid brother or little cousin. They grew up together, and when you’re a kid two years seems like a huge deal. But she knows that the truth is about the last thing he wants to hear on this matter so she shrugs, “Ask me again when you don’t eat Froot Loops every morning,” she says turning towards her own cabin. 

“Bold of you to assume the good people of Camp Miniwaka buy us brand name cereal!” Sam calls after her, and she’s almost all the way back to her own cabin when she realizes she’s been holding her breath. 

She’s mentally bracing herself the next morning before breakfast for Sam to come over and try to talk to her again, but when she scans the crowd for him he’s goofing around with Emily Hershey. The two of them swat at each other before Sam grabs Emily around the waist and pulls her off the ground, Emily shrieking and laughing until he puts her back down. 

“Oh god, I thought we were getting a handle on the LIT-cest after our year,” Sierra Sherrington says coming up beside Gabi. 

“Huh?” Gabi says turning away from Sam and Emily. 

“You remember how bad it was our year as LITs was, I mean that’s basically the reason the hookup post got created, because it was easier to try and keep track,” Sierra says. “I thought the new kids were doing a pretty good job of keeping it in their pants but uh, looks like we might have patient zero on our hands.” 

Gabi snaps her head back to Sam and Emily, who are still play-fighting and joking. “I don’t think Sam’s into Emily,” she says slowly, but as she says it it seems less solidly true. Sure Sam’s never said anything to her about liking Emily, but Sam’s never really told her about any girls he’s been into. 

Sierra makes a little skeptical clicking noise and goes back to her campers, and Gabi shoots a last glance at Sam and Emily. It would be so nice, not to mention convenient, if Sam was into someone else, but she’s pretty unsure that he’s into Emily. Though they do both work on the Morning Show, so it’s not like he hasn’t had plenty of time to develop a crush on her. Gabi knows for a fact that he isn’t interested in any of the girls who are really involved with the drama department after he spent all of _Seussical_ complaining about the Bird Girls flirting with him. 

And as much as Gabi doesn’t think he’s into Emily, she can’t help but wonder about it, especially when Sam drops by her table at breakfast to let her know that Emily’s going to help him run her morning drama session while she takes a well-earned nap in her cabin. 

Or at least that’s the plan, but the moment she lies down she can’t stop thinking about what if Sierra is wrong about Emily. About what she’ll do if Sam actually _does_ tell her he likes her. Especially at camp, where they’re forced to be around each other a decent chunk of every day, and where her rejecting him will spread like wildfire among the LITs, CITs, and counsellors. Also it’s not like she actively wants to hurt her best friend, and the thought of doing so makes her stomach bunch up into knots. 

But on the other hand, it’s not like she hasn’t been pretty freaking obvious that she’s only interested in Sam as a friend, and it’s not her fault that he hasn’t picked up her very obvious hints. She groans and rolls over on her bed, abandoning the hope of a nap and decides that she needs answers on this thing one way or another. 

She slips her shoes on and makes her way through the back paths towards the outdoor stage where all the drama classes and activities take place. Sam is up on the stage with all the campers in a circle around him as they play Bang. When Sam catches sight of her he nods to Emily who takes his place in the middle of the circle as he comes to hop off the stage.

“Hey, you’re back early!” 

“Couldn't sleep,” she says with a shrug. “How’re the babies?” 

Sam laughs, and adjusts his hat. “They’re good, we’re having fun. Emily is actually so good at drama games, which I wasn’t expecting cause she’s so sporty, you know?” 

Gabi makes a noncommital little noise, “Soooo…” She says, pointedly, “Emily…” 

“What about Emily?” Sam says, completely blank faced and honest. 

Gabi pokes her tongue in her cheek, “Are you like...into her?” 

Sam laughs. “Oh man, no. Not at all. She’s uh…not really my type,” he says, and then gazes off into the distance and what the _fuck_ is that supposed to mean? 

“Uh huh,” Gabi says. 

“No for real, I really don’t,” Sam protests, his voice getting weirdly serious. 

“I’m just saying you guys were getting a bit cozy earlier,” she says, shrugging her shoulders, and it’s not even like she wants Sam to like Emily, she’s just holding out hope that maybe this super secret important thing he wants to tell her is about liking someone else. _Anyone_ else. 

Sam rolls his eyes though. “She’s going through a rough time. I’m just trying to be a good friend, _Gabrielle_.” 

“Alright, alright, okay,” Gabi says, holding her hands up in surrender. 

“Actually speaking of, could we talk after lunch? During quiet hour?” Sam asks. 

“Oh,” Gabi says. “I uh, maybe? I’m supposed to uh...be helping Christa...with stuff.” Which is a lie and also a bit below the belt because she knows that Sam isn’t exactly on great terms with Christa after the way the documentary had turned out, but if she is going to have to reject Sam she’d rather not have to do it in the middle of the day. 

Honestly, if she can just drag out him telling her until the evening tomorrow she should be fine, because everyone will be so busy Saturday morning that no one will really have any time to be gossiping about it as they pack up and send off this session of campers. And after all the kids go home and the LITs, CITs and counselors (plus the kitchen staff) are the only ones left, changeover weekend will officially start which means there will be no shortage of sorrow-drowning distractions for Sam to engage in. 

Plus Gabi’s pretty sure Sam invited Peter up for change-over, so he’ll have a shoulder to cry on, metaphorically hopefully. God she’ll be so fucked if Sam actually cries, and he’ll be kinda fucked too because Peter is a sweet kid but he’s not always the most empathetic person in the world. 

Either way, as long as she can hold Sam off for the next 36 hours everything should be...well, not fine, but better. Less bad at the very least. 

Gabi also manages to track down Christa at lunch and asks if she needs a hand with anything during quiet hour, so at the very least her lie isn’t a lie anymore. Though she really does have things she’d rather be doing than sitting around on the docks with Christa, wrapping rocks in tinfoil as part of a Harry Potter themed full-camp activity tonight. 

“What are these supposed to be again?” Gabi asks, throwing another stone into the hamper. 

“They’re pieces of the sorcerer's stone,” Christa says with a sort of deadpan seriousness Gabi can never tell if is a joke or not. 

She doesn’t have to consider it much longer though because the bell that signals the end of quiet hour echoes through camp. Gabi’s helping Christa carry the repurposed laundry hamper of tin foil covered rocks back up towards the storage shed when they practically run into Sam heading down towards the lake. 

“Gabi!” He calls excitedly, and then catches sight of Christa, tone changing. “Oh, uh, hey Christa.” 

“Hi Sam,” Christa says with a strained little smile. 

“I just uh, wanted to let you know that all the LITs are on decoration duty all afternoon, but maybe we could talk before dinner?” 

“Yeah maybe,” Gabi says, and then when Sam lingers. “Look sorry, this is heavy, we’ll talk later okay?” 

“Yeah sure,” Sam says, sounding crestfallen. 

“What’s his deal?” Christa asks once they’re out of earshot and Gabi sighs. 

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to tell me he likes me and I really don’t want to deal with that.” Gabi pulls open the heavy wood door of the shed and they maneuver the hamper in. 

“Oh, I thought…” Christa starts and then shakes her head. “Nevermind, it’s none of my business.” 

“What?” Gabi prompts, closing the door. 

“Nothing. Besides, he totally hates me, I’m sure he doesn’t want me talking about him.” 

“He doesn’t _hate_ you,” Gabi says, “He just thinks if you _did_ do it because of something Rafferty did that, like, you should have pushed the issue further with the school or tried to go public with it. Especially if you thought he might say the same sorts of things to other people.” 

“Oh,” Christa says, “Really?” 

Gabi nods, “Yeah no, that’s totally his problem. He’s freaked out by the possibility you’re the only person who can get a dangerous teacher fired and you’re leaving a whole school of people behind who could be vulnerable.”

Christa opens her mouth once and then closes it. “Oh, I, I didn’t know.” 

“Sam’s really sensitive about that stuff,” Gabi says with a shrug. “It can be kind of annoying though he can be a bit...righteous.” Even though Sam hadn’t exactly been wrong about Brandon being a douchebag, it’s not like Gabi had been completely blind to what she’d been getting into. She hadn’t loved some of the shit Brandon did but there was something about getting a bratty boy to treat you sweetly that Gabi had always enjoyed. Call her problematic.

Christa nods seriously, as if she is not the righteous pot to Sam’s kettle, and mutters something about needing to get back down to teach her afternoon kayak session. 

Since they’re preparing the mess hall for that night’s big Harry Potter themed final hurrah, Gabi’s normal afternoon zumba session has been cancelled, and she ends up getting enlisted alongside the LITs to help decorate. Which she’d probably be more worried about, but she figures Sam isn’t going to spill his secret in front of all the people he’s currently sharing a cabin with, so she figures she’s safe to help set up. 

Also, she’s enlisted to help two of the girl LITs glue fake gemstones onto plastic goblets while Sam is up on a ladder hanging up the totally copyright infringing house banners on the wall. Gabi doesn’t really know the two girls she’s working with, so she’s fine to just focus on not burning her fingertips off with the hot glue gun while they play FMK with the male counsellors. 

“So I’d say, kill Alex Trimboli, obviously, fuck Van cause he’s hot and cool, and I dunno I guess I’ll marry Pat Micklewaite, I don’t really know him but he seems nice,” The one girl, Gabi thinks her name is maybe Abby, says, reaching in the bowl for another fake gem. 

“Why would you wanna marry someone you don’t know?” Sam says, hopping off the ladder and hovering behind them. 

“It’s just a game,” The other girl says. “It’s not like they’re actually going to get married.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Sam says, “I’m just saying like, if you already know you like Van wouldn’t it make more sense to marry him and fuck someone you’re not sure about?” 

“I think you’re taking this too seriously,” Maybe-Abby says.

“No but like, don’t you want the person you’re romantically into to be someone you really know and trust who’s your friend? I mean, ideally your best friend?” Sam says looking wistfully off into the distance and Gabi’s stomach drops as she accidentally hits her hand with the hot metal tip of the glue gun, hissing in pain. 

“Ahh shit,” she says, dropping the glue gun. 

“Are you okay?” Sam says, crouching down to inspect her hand. 

“It’s fine,” Gabi says, pulling her hand away and picking off a small piece of glue that had stuck to the now red and angry skin of her finger. 

“There’s probably polysporin in the first aid kit,” Sam says but Gabi rolls her eyes. 

“I think I’ll survive, Dr. Sam.” 

“Don’t come crying to me if you get an infection and your finger turns green and shrivels up and falls off because you ignored my medical advice. Especially seeing as I am newly first aid certified.” 

“But are you CPR certified?” Gabi says back and Sam laughs and god, she really doesn’t wanna fuck this up. This easy back and forth they’ve always had, because, well at least for Gabi, they’ve basically grown up as secondary siblings. And now because Sam had to go and develop feelings for her, all of it might be ruined forever. 

“Hey,” Sam says, crouching down, “You okay?” 

Gabi looks up, schooling her face into something more neutral. “Oh yeah, I’m just uh, thinking about how Alex Trimboli is probably gonna make a bunch of gross jokes about us being married ‘cause I heard he called dibs on being Ron.” 

“You’re gonna be Hermione?” Maybe-Abby says raising an eyebrow. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s my god given right as a Granger to be Hermione,” Gabi says as Sam sits down and starts gluing with them. “Are they making the LITs dress up too? I know the CITs are all being Death Eaters.” 

Sam nods. “Yeah we’re all being Hogwarts students, I’m gonna be Colin Creevey, just channel my inner Peter Maldonado and shove that camera in everyone’s face,” he laughs and then pauses. “Don’t tell him I said that when he’s here tomorrow.” 

Maybe-Abby’s entire posture changes at the sound of Peter’s name. “Peter’s coming!?” 

Sam nods. “Yeah, he’s my plus one for changeover weekend.” 

Well that’s...interesting. Gabi had never really thought about the kind of girl who would be into Peter, who was very sweet but also very weird, but apparently there’s something he’s doing that Maybe-Abby is very interested in. 

“I still can’t believe we lost on a tidiness challenge to the boys,” Maybe-Abby’s friend says. “That’s just like not fair.” 

“Oh, is that what they did this year for changeover guest privilege?” Gabi asks. “Our year it was like, whoever made the least food waste for the first one and then we had a geocaching challenge for the second.” 

“Ugh, I hope we don’t do that for our second one,” Sam says with a groan. “Geocaching is, like, the most boring version of a scavenger hunt.” 

“I think it’s kind of fun,” Gabi says. 

“I mean you’re entitled to your wrong opinion,” Sam says with a shrug before getting called off to help with some other thing. 

“Hey, you’re friends with Peter too right?” Maybe-Abby asks, fiddling with one of the fake gems. 

“Yeah, why?” Gabi says cautiously. 

“Does he— do you know if he’s, like, seeing anyone?” She asks nervously, and her friend laughs and then covers it poorly with a cough. 

“I’m pretty sure he’s not,” Gabi says, trying to sound as non-judgmental as possible. And she’s saved from having to think about Peter Maldonado’s dating life anymore when she gets called away to deal with some incident in the senior girls bunk involving a hair straightener. 

She’s busy all that night helping run the big Harry Potter night, which mostly involves a stupidly complicated scavenger hunt for the tinfoil covered rocks she and Christa had made. It’s mostly fun, even though it takes a few threats before Alex Trimboli stops calling her his wife. (Who knew wands were such good asshole deterrents when jabbed in the direction of eyes?) She barely even sees Sam until the final points tally at campfire when the Ravenclaw team wins. As promised, he’s sticking an old school film camera in people’s faces until they say cheese. She’s pretty sure there isn’t even any film in the camera, but it’s the perfect character for him. 

He makes eye contact with her right as they’re sending the campers to bed, but she pretends not to notice and tries to get to the front of the crowd as quickly as possible so she can avoid him. She’s made it this long, she just needs to get to tomorrow afternoon and then she should be fine. It might be weird, but it’ll be fine. 

Right?

She’s too busy the next morning making sure all her campers get the bunk packed up to really worry about it too much, and from 8:00 am until noon she’s too busy finding lost socks and running to get extra plastic bags and accepting letters and pressed flowers and crafts from her campers to really have any time to worry about Sam and his nonsense. It’s lunch by the time she finally, _finally_ , says goodbye to the last of the campers and gets to sit down for a blissful few minutes. 

She’s so exhausted she doesn’t even care that she ends up sitting beside Sara Pearson, who she honestly wouldn’t mind at all had she not, you know, been an accessory to Brandon cheating on her. All of the other counsellors seem about as tired as her though, so it’s pretty quiet while everyone eats. She’s with a different cabin for the next session, so after lunch she packs up her stuff and moves into her new cabin. She’s excited to be with the junior campers, she liked the intermediate girls but all their interpersonal drama was hard to keep up with. And as much as she remembered being eleven and feeling like a boy not liking you back was the end of the world, it’s harder to take it as seriously as they do when you have the insight of an eighteen-year-old. 

She spends a long time hanging all her little sentimental odds and ends up on her wall, postcards from her non-camp friends, a really sweet letter from Daniel, a photo of her and Sam from Much Ado, the two of them beaming at each other after opening night. She tries to be gentle with it as she tapes it to the wall of the cabin, touching the photo gently before moving on to the stack of cards her campers from last week made her. 

She figures she’s put things off long enough and sets off into the heart of camp where she can hear the thumping bass and sound of partying even before she’s off the porch of her cabin. But when she gets to the fire pit where people are gathered, Sam is nowhere to be found. 

“Hey,” Gabi says tapping Christa on the shoulder. “Have you seen Sam?” 

Christa pauses, a flask halfway up to her mouth. “Oh, hmmm, I think I saw him and Peter like twenty minutes ago? No idea where they went. Do you want some?” 

Gabi shakes her head. She really needs to get a handle on the Sam situation before she starts drinking. If she can ever actually _find_ Sam who seems to have disappeared off somewhere. It’s weird after putting it off for so many days that she’s antsy _now_ ,but she just wants to rip that bandaid. It also does not help that she’s surrounded by people who are already pretty tipsy and starting to lean towards drunk, so while she’s sober there’s not much to distract her. 

She’s about five minutes away from just starting to drink when Sam re-emerges from god-knows-where with Peter trailing after him. Both of them have damp hair and Sam’s wearing a big grey hoodie he wasn’t that morning, so Gabi figures they must have gone for a swim or something. Which is a bit of an odd choice, but it’s Sam and Peter so like. Not that weird. 

“Hey Gabi,” Peter says. 

“Hey Peter, long time no see, how’s the outside world treating you?” 

Peter shrugs, “Uh, it’s pretty good. Just working on projects you know, this and that.” 

Sam scoffs, “Dude! ‘This and that?’You don’t gotta be all fake modest. Gab you’ll never guess who contacted him about streaming _Vandal_.” 

“Who?” Gabi says, and god she does not want to be drawn into a whole _Vandal_ side tangent. 

“Netflix,” Sam says. “Like actual motherfucking Netflix wants the streaming rights to _Vandal_.” 

“Oh my god?” Gabi says, and okay that’s actually really cool. “That’s so awesome, Peter. Like really, congrats.” 

Peter ducks his head and gives one of his rare little shy smiles, Sam’s arm slung around his shoulder. “The paperwork is still getting figured out, my mom wanted her lawyer to look over everything before I sign anything. But I’m going to make sure you get a cut since you were the head of transpo.” 

“I mean I’m not gonna say _no_ to that, but really I just drove you to a couple of places.” 

“You were an invaluable part of the investigation,” Peter says earnestly. “Just maybe keep the whole thing on the downlow until it’s official?” 

“Totally,” Gabi says, “Anyways, sorry to crash your bro catch-up time but Sam, did you uh, still need to talk to me?” 

“Oh yeah,” Sam says. “Yeah sorry Pete, are you cool to chill here for a bit?” 

Peter nods. “Yeah sure.” 

“Your cabin?” Sam prompts and Gabi nods, and they head away from the heart of camp, Gabi sparing a glance over her shoulder towards Peter who has been cornered by Pat Micklewaite and does _not_ seem happy about it. 

Sam’s weirdly pensive as they walk and doesn’t start up his normal stream of chatter, just seeming content to be with her in silence. Gabi chews her lip, considering for the first time that maybe the best way to handle this is just to beat Sam to the punch. To not let him have the time to get his hopes up, and by the time they’re at her cabin it seems like not just the best option but the only option. 

“Do you want to sit?” Gabi says as Sam lingers, rocking and back and forth on the balls of his feet. 

“I uh, I feel like if I sit down I will totally chicken out and fuck this up,” Sam says, and then takes a long deep breath. “Fuck, I had this like, all planned out in my head I was gonna be so cool and chill.” 

Now or never, Gabi thinks, time to rip off the bandaid and hope for the best. “Sam it’s okay, I know.” 

Sam’s rocking stops, “You— you _know_?” 

Gabi lets out a little nervous laugh, even though it’s not funny at all, “I mean, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. But look Sam, you’re my best friend and I really truly love you and I would never want to hurt you, but I just...I know you have a crush on me and that’s totally okay and fine, I know you can’t help if that’s how you feel. But I will always, and only, see you as a friend. And I’m sorry I know that probably really hurts and I know you’ve probably been trying to work up the nerve to tell me this for a while, but this is how it’s going to be,” she says in one long rush, looking over Sam’s shoulder because she can’t do this looking him in the eye. 

There’s a long lingering silence after the rush of her words and then Sam says very slowly, “I’m gay. That’s what I wanted to tell you. That I’m gay.” 

“Wait you…” Gabi says, everything slowing down and then suddenly snapping firmly back into focus, “What?” 

“I’m gay,” Sam says. “I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, but uh, it just never really seemed like the right time.” 

She looks up at him, the wheels in her head still turning as she tries to process this. “Wait, so like...you’ve _never_ liked me?” 

“You do know what gay means, right?”

“Shut up,” Gabi says, and she’s vaguely aware that she’s not being the greatest friend right now and that she should probably be reassuring Sam that this is all great and fine and this changes nothing. But uh, actually it changes a _lot_. “Wait are you honestly saying you _never_ liked me? I mean it’s fine, it’s cool that you didn’t, but like, it always kind of seemed like you did?” 

Sam shrugs. “Like, I know I didn’t, but there was a while where like _everyone_ thought I did so then it was sort of weird because I started to wonder if maybe I _did_ , even though I knew I didn’t.” 

“Okay but you said about...wanting to date your best friend?” Gabi says.

Sam looks almost sheepish and then Gabi looks off into the distance in a perfect moment of crystal clarity. “Oh my god. You’re in love with Peter.” 

Sam doesn’t even _try_ and deny it, just sort of crunches smaller into his big hoodie, which actually...now that Gabi looks at it, is not really the kind of thing Sam wears, but it does look like it might be ripped from the wardrobe of one filmmaker they both know. 

“Is Peter also— ?” She starts and then decides to take a different approach. “Does Peter know?” 

Sam rubs the back of his next and gives her a sort of nervous smile. “I uh, just told him. Like twenty minutes ago.” 

“And it went okay?” She says hesitantly. 

“Yeah it went,” Sam says smiling. “It went really good.” 

Well, that answers some things about Peter that had never even crossed her mind. Though it makes a certain amount of sense about how generally disinterested Peter’s seemed about girls. Sucks to be Maybe-Abby right now, though. 

“You know I’m obviously cool with this. I should have probably said that earlier, sorry, you just uh, really surprised me,” Gabi says. 

“Yeah, I could tell,” Sam says. 

“Really though,” Gabi says. “You’re my best friend and I just want what makes you happy. And I’m really sorry I was so weird this week, I was genuinely trying to protect you.” 

“From the horrors of an unreciprocated crush, I get it,” Sam says. “And I mean, to be fair, I was psyching myself up to tell someone I liked them, it just wasn’t you.” 

“Which, thank god honestly, I was worried I was going to have to rely on Peter to console you.” 

“Hey he can be really sweet when he wants to,” Sam says, scuffing his shoe on the wood floor of the cabin. 

“Oh?” Gabi prompts and then when Sam isn’t forthcoming with details, “Sam come on it’s not every day the guy you think is in love with you tells his best friend he likes him.” 

“It’s honestly kind of dumb,” Sam says. “We just, uh, went down to the dock—” 

“—Did you go to the docks because you knew it was a good hypothetical sneaky place to do something up to and including a handjob?” Gabi asks. 

“Maybe,” Sam says, “Do you wanna hear what happened or what?” 

“Yes, yes, sorry, I’m being quiet now.” 

Sam laughs. “Good. But yeah so we went down to the docks and he was telling me about the whole Netflix thing and he was just, god he was _so happy_ and I just, like, knew more than ever how much I really, really liked him so I uh, I told him. And then he, uh, kissed me and it was really nice only I really wasn’t expecting it so I sort of, uh, backed up off the end of the dock. And he, you know, he was like, very close to me so when I fell we just sort of both went in.” 

“Oh my god, _Sam_.” 

“Yeah not exactly the suave romantic confession of my daydreams,” Sam says rocking on his heels and sticking his hands in the kangaroo pouch of his hoodie. 

“Are you wearing Peter’s hoodie?” 

Sam actually fucking blushes at that one. “I was cold! We fell in the lake!” 

“I think you’re officially not allowed to rag on my prom-posal anymore.” 

“Yeah Peter surprising me with our first kiss and your shitty ex getting drunk and pushing you in the pool is exactly the same,” Sam says with an eye roll. 

“Oh my god,” Gabi says, standing up. “You guys are going to be insufferable aren’t you?” 

“Oh one _hundred_ percent,” Sam says, pulling open the creaky screen door of the cabin for her. “Payback’s a biiiiitch.” 

“Wait, so,” Gabi says, hopping off the porch of the cabin. “If you weren’t into me why did you hate Brandon so much?” 

“Because he’s a douchebag Gabrielle, how is that even a _question_?” 

“Alright sorry _Samuel_.” 

Sam laughs and slings an arm over her shoulder, and for the first time in a long time she doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he’s imagining that their relationship is something more than it is. And while Sam being gay was more or less the last thing she expected, it makes sense in a weird roundabout way. His general confusion about girls and the way he’d always confessed to her that he’d never totally felt like he quite fit in, which Gabi had felt was a little self-indulgent for some well-liked white boy, but it makes sense now. 

“I still can't believe you thought I liked you,” Sam says with a laugh. 

“Uh, excuse me, Peter also thought you liked me enough to make an entire segment of the doc about it and he’s your...boyfriend? Are you and Peter, like, officially dating?” 

“I have no clue,” Sam says, as music blares from near the mess hall, “Actually, uh, we haven’t talked at all about like...telling people? So maybe can you keep this to yourself for a little bit?” 

“Yeah of course,” Gabi says, reaching up to squeeze the hand he has draped over her shoulder. “And if anyone’s a dick, you point them towards me and I’ll deal with them.” 

“You and Dylan can team up,” Sam says. “Apparently he already threatened like two people on our behalf.” 

“In what, the last half hour?” 

“Oh no,” Sam says. “He, uh, totally thought we were already dating. You guys are like, perfect ends of the spectrum.” 

“Hmmmmm,” Gabi says thoughtfully as they make their way towards the crowd around the unlit firepit in front of the mess. Christa spots Sam’s arm around her and gives Gabi a little confused look, but she shakes her head just makes a little slashing motion by her throat and Christa shrugs back. They find Peter sitting on a bench up on the mess hall deck looking a little bit overwhelmed as Maybe-Abby talks at him aggressively. 

“Pete, hey!” Sam calls, taking his arm from around Gabi to wave, Peter breaking out in the dopiest relieved grin Gabi has ever seen in her entire life. That alone is a real out-of-character move, but she truly is _not_ prepared when Peter stands and reaches out for Sam’s face with both hands, kissing him right in the middle of the mess hall deck right in front of poor Maybe-Abby who backs away in defeat as Sam seems to recover from his own surprise and put one hand on Peter’s cheek while the other drapes over his shoulder. 

Someone wolf whistles and Sierra Sherrington appears over her shoulder. “Huh, guess he’s not into Emily Hershey after all.” 

Gabi laughs and gratefully accepts the flask Sierra passes her, more than happy to join the party now that all the Sam drama is behind her. She’s half expecting Sam and Peter to disappear off to somewhere, but they end up hanging out with her for most of the afternoon, getting tipsy together on vodka coolers as Sam tells her a story about Mr. Rafferty telling him to ask her out, his head on Peter’s shoulder for most of it. 

Though they must sneak off at some point, because Sam walks into the mess hall at noon on Sunday wearing a puffer vest zipped up all the way under his chin, though it’s still not quite enough to hide the massive hickey on his neck. Peter looks incredibly smug as the two of them eat hangover breakfast together. 

“It’s Miniwaka official,” Sam says, extremely pleased with himself, when Peter gets up to get more water. “We carved the post in Bunk 13 and everything.” 

“God I bet there was a _line_ out the door this morning to add to the post,” Gabi says. 

“Oh yeah I saw a ton of people this morning, that’s why Peter and I thought ahead and did it last night. Oh hey, also, apparently Emily hooked up with that girl Maria Stanley? Which is great, she was so bummed earlier this week about things not working out with some girl she liked.” 

“Wait...is Emily Hershey a lesbian?” 

“Are you seriously asking me if the girl who is the sports reporter for the school is a lesbian?” Sam says, “Your gaydar really fucking sucks.” 

Gabi rolls her eyes, and smacks him in the arm, “Stop being heterophobic, Sam.” 

“Hey, I take offense to that. My best friend is straight. I am an ally.” 

Peter slides back into the bench and they’re debating whether to go for a swim or play shuffleboard when some CIT Gabi doesn’t know comes over to their table and highfives Sam. “Yo congrats on the hookup with Pat dude.” 

“Pat?” Sam says, once the guy’s out of earshot. “Why the hell would he— Oh. Oh shit, Peter Maldonado. P.M., just like— oh my god it’s like two hookups for the price of one!”

“Oh my god, Peter, I am _kidding_ ,” he says when Peter huffs. Sam leans over and gives him a series of big melodramatic smacking kisses on the cheek until Peter relents and cracks a smile. And it’s nice to know that even with all the weird interpersonal surprises over the last few days, she can count on Peter’s seemingly unmotivated hatred for Pat Micklewaite to be the closest thing any of them to expect as a universal constant. 

“ _Pat Micklewaite_ ,” Peter seethes with an intense hatred she’s only seem him direct at filmmakers who overuse dutch angles. Sam and Gabi make eye contact over his head and roll their eyes in perfect unison. 

Yeah, she thinks, everything’s gonna be totally fine. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to my darling Rachel and Meg for your insights and editing skills as always. You can find me on tumblr where I'm also phonecallfromgod.


End file.
